COVID-19 remains viable on human skin for upto nine hours increasing risk of transmission

A new study has revealed that the deadly COVID-19 virus can remain on human skin for up to nine hours. As per the study, the remnants of COVID-19 that remain on human skin can be viable of up to nine hours which is significantly longer than the common flu or influenza A virus (IAV) which remains viable for only 2 hours on human skin. The study was published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.

COVID lingers on Human Skin much longer than other viruses

The study further showed that the COVID-19 virus that lingers on human skin may be neutralized through the use of hand sanitizer or soap. Therefore, this study just goes on to prove the importance of using hand sanitizer and washing our hands. The stability of COVID-19 or coronavirus still remains a mystery to researchers.

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The study also revealed that COVID-19 viruses lasted much longer on other surfaces like stainless steel, glass and plastic than on human skin and that it was far easier to render the virus if it was lingering on human skin. The long time that COVID-19 can survive on human skin means that the risk of infection goes up drastically and therefore making it much more important to practice proper hygiene if one wants to stop the spread of the virus.

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 36 million people worldwide with the global death toll crossing 1,000,000. The US has reported more than 7.6 million positive COVID-19 cases and a death toll of over 210,000.

(With PTI inputs)

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